NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Vince Young once again proved he still has maturity issues by getting into a 3 a.m. scrum Sunday in a Dallas strip club. The incident likely reminded Young that he might not be in Nashville forever.

To his credit, Young was accountable for his mistake. By meeting with Dallas police Sunday instead of hiding, Young turned an assault that looked ugly on video into the legal equivalent of a traffic offense. He stepped up to the mike Monday after Titans practice and apologized to the fans, the team and management. With no other criminal offense to his name, Young probably will avoid an NFL suspension.

What he won't avoid is the scrutiny of how he handles himself and how it affects his leadership role and future with the Titans.

"Becoming a leader is a process," Titans coach Jeff Fisher said. "You just don't step in and just take over a team. It's a process and throughout the process on occasions you hope there are not setbacks."

Long term, the Dallas incident might just be like a sack, but Young, who is 27, still has a lot to prove. He has two years remaining on a contract that pays him $11.75 million this year and $12.75 million in 2011. With a 26-13 career record, Young is a 67 percent winner and has a 57.6 career completion percentage. His future with the Titans will be determined by whether he can keep winning and improving as a quarterback.

"The young Vince Young is leaving, and the mature Vince Young is coming in," veteran wide receiver Justin Gage said. "He's stepping up in front of the team and talking more to the players and coaching guys more on the field."

Here are the five things we learned during a visit with the Titans.

1. VY fine-tuning technique: Mechanically, Young shows improvement as a quarterback. At least he's working at it. Throwing to his left became a problem in the past couple of seasons because Young's footwork was horrid. Young would twist his body to throw left, but his right foot wouldn't move with him, leaving him an open stance and leading to inaccurate throws. Young's footwork has improved, although he still occasionally throws a short toss with a motion that's similar to that of a baseball shortstop. He's also making a conscious effort to hold the ball higher because when he runs and keeps the ball low, it slows his release.

This will be a critical year for Young. It will be his third season working with offensive coordinator Mike Heimerdinger, and the third year is critical. Steve McNair developed under Heimerdinger in their third season together. Young seems to be developing a nice throwing relationship with Kenny Britt on deep balls. He should be better with his short passing game, which needed to improve.

2. Good show of hands: Clearly, this is the deepest receiving unit in recent Titans history. With no stars, it doesn't top the run-and-shoot days when Warren Moon spread out four receivers for the old Houston Oilers, but there are more intriguing options at receiver than there are regular-season roster spots. Go back to 2007, when Gage signed with the Titans as a free agent. Their top wide receivers then were Gage, Roydell Williams, a 34-year-old Eric Moulds and Brandon Jones.

The front office has done a nice job of adding a couple of new receivers to the mix each year. Britt, despite some early offseason questions about conditioning, is developing into a big-play threat. Nate Washington is a quick receiver offering run-after-the-catch ability. Gage is a big slot receiver with good hands, and Young and others believe Lavelle Hawkins can still develop into another slot option.

Third-round choice Damian Williams has been working all three receiver spots as a backup, and he shows good potential. Seventh-round choice Marc Mariani from Montana also catches the eye as a future slot receiver, but he would have to beat out Paul Williams and Dominique Edison just to be the sixth receiver on the roster.

3. Backfield lacking punch: The Titans' backfield doesn't look the same with Chris Johnson skipping offseason workouts and LenDale White long gone. White's spot as the big back appears to be going to LeGarrette Blount, the 241-pound power back from Oregon. Blount just arrived for the final two weeks of OTAs because the University of Oregon, like most Pac-10 schools, runs its school terms in quarters. Blount has a lot of catching up to do. Fisher loves the versatility of 2009 fifth-round choice Javon Ringer, who reminds him of former Titan Robert Holcombe.

The Titans do have a great fullback in Ahmard Hall. But without Johnson, the backfield lacks explosiveness. Johnson faces a tough decision in the next month. He could hold out for a new contract, but it probably won't work. The Titans might be willing to redo his deal after three seasons, but probably not after just two. Johnson has three years left on his rookie contract, so a holdout might only cost him money and result in disappointment. In the past week or so, Johnson has been reaching out to Fisher and Titans coaches to help him with his charity football camp coming up in the next few days. Titans coaches got word back to Johnson that they would like him at their NFL camp.

4. Secondary concerns: The key to the season might be how the secondary comes together. First of all, cornerback Cortland Finnegan can be the best friend and worst enemy of a Titans receiver. He's a good friend in the sense that he challenges Titans receivers in practice with tight coverage and aggressive techniques. A summer with Finnegan prepares Titans receivers for going up and trying to beat top corners such as Champ Bailey, Nnamdi Asomugha and Darrelle Revis. But he can be an enemy in the sense that he's willing to call receivers out if they aren't working hard.

Figuring out the other cornerback spot will be critical. Jason McCourty, a sixth-round pick from a year ago, is running with the first team now that Roderick Hood is out for the season with a blown ACL. Former first-rounder Tye Hill will join the competition along with Ryan Mouton, a third-round choice from 2009.

Improved play at safety will be critical. Michael Griffin showed Pro Bowl potential two years ago, but he's coming off a down year. Veteran safety Chris Hope is still a good leader, but he's 29, which can be a scary age for a safety. Hope has to keep Griffin in line to improve the overall play at safety. In the meantime, Fisher will be developing draft choices Robert Johnson and Myron Rolle as safety options for the future.

5. Short story: For a second, I thought I was in Colts camp. The Colts thrive and win with short linebackers. The Titans apparently are trying the same thing. Third-round choice Rennie Curran from Georgia is 5-foot-11. Starting middle linebacker Stephen Tulloch, who signed his restricted free-agent tender Monday but wasn't on the field, is also 5-11. Fisher doesn't make a big deal of it, noting that Tennessee has 6-2 and 6-3 linebackers, but it's great to see that more teams aren't downgrading linebackers just because they aren't 6-footers.

James Harrison of the Steelers and Elvis Dumervil of the Broncos are among the short linebackers who have thrived. The Titans have plenty of linebacker options, but problems are affecting depth. Linebacker Gerald McRath, expected to be the starting strongside linebacker, is suspended for four games, leaving veteran David Thornton, who's coming off shoulder surgery, as the main option. It's not out of the question for the Titans to keep Keith Bulluck's number on speed dial even though he's coming off knee surgery.

CJ2K wishes he had it as good as Darrelle Revis when it comes to contract talks.

"Just got off the phone with my agent and its not good news," Chris Johnson tweeted. [We've strategically added letters for clarity.] "I'm feeling like @Revis24 [Darrelle Revis] right now at least dey offering him something dey not offering me nothing."

The Titans running back embarked on a holdout that includes no easy solution, unless Tennessee becomes willing to give Johnson a short-term bump to tide him over. We suspect the team won't entertain any new contract for a third-year player.

"Its like how u expect your players to give they all and put their bodies on the line when you not willing to give them what they deserve," Johnson said. "How do you want a player to honor their contract but the team don't have to honor it. If you don't want to pay a player early don't cut a player early."

Seems like maybe CJ has spent some time in the Vince Young School of Elocution.

Titans running back Chris Johnson is one of the best players in the NFL, and he can't stand the fact that he isn't paid like one of the best players in the NFL.

"I can't play for $550,000,'' Johnson told Jim Wyatt of the Tennessean, referring to what he's scheduled to make this season. "The money that I am playing for, I am getting paid less than the [other] starting 11 [players on the Titans' offense] and I'm one of the lowest paid starting running backs in the league.''

Johnson, who has three more years on the five-year, $12 million deal he signed after the Titans drafted him in 2008, said he'll hold out of training camp if he has to.

"Right now, I am not sure what is going to happen," Johnson said. "I just hope they pay me, but I don't know.''

The Titans don't seem inclined to give Johnson a new deal, noting that they've still got Johnson locked up for three more years, and that the "30 percent rule" would make it tough for them to dramatically increase Johnson's salary. And the Titans have a lot of leverage if Johnson holds out, because if Johnson doesn't report within 30 days of the start of the regular season, he could lose a year of credit toward free agency.

The truth is, if the Titans refuse to play ball with Johnson, he ultimately will play for $550,000. And if he gets fined for holding out, he'll play for even less than that.

You know, I generally stay pretty neutral about contract stuff between players and management, and in fact, might lean a little toward the players. Everyone seems to want to pile on the players for making millions, but they conveniently ignore that the owners are making hundreds of millions off the backs of these players. So to me, it's just business.

However, the players make it hard when they say stupid things like this. Yes you can play for $550K and you should be damn happy your illiterate ass is making that insane sum of money. That doesn't mean you shouldn't be trying to get the biggest piece of the pie you can, but just keep your damn mouth shut. This and the "doing the best for my family" line is just dumb.

Actually, I retract that. It's the Titans, so strife is good.

__________________Hey O'Brien: "How do you tell a guy who is used to catching 80 balls a year that he was going to catch 40?"... You jackass.

First two years: Get paid base plus big signing bonus and frontloaded $$$. Buy house, stupid car, take trips to Bahamas and Vegas, make it rain.

Third and Fourth years: base salary. Ooops! Someone blew threw their millions and now have to live on 550K. What to do? Eliminate stupid spending? NAH! Gripe about needing a new deal all the while forgetting to mention that you got 7 million bucks the first two years!

Fifth year: Big money backloaded here. This gets the agent paid. Get renegotiated or get cut depending on how you're playing.

If RB's didn't have such a short shelf life I could see being all "Chris Johnson sux!" But I doubt Johnson is going to be even half the running back he is now in 5 years, and I don't feel much animosity towards him for trying to get paid before a lockout.

Titansdefensive endDerrick Morgan was arrested in
Georgia on Wednesday night on charges of
speeding and driving with a suspended license.

Morgan was on his way back to Nashville for
Thursday’s minicamp practice. He was pulled over
on I-75 in Resaca, Ga., about 37 miles south of
Chattanooga.

Gordon County police officer Raymond Holcomb
said Morgan was traveling 91 mph in a 70 mph
speed limit zone when he was pulled over by Resaca
police just after 5 p.m.

Morgan’s bond was posted and he was released
from jail roughly three hours later, Holcomb said.
Morgan has a court date scheduled on July 26.

Titans Coach Jeff Fisher could not be reached for
comment on Thursday.

The Titans selected Morgan, who lives in Atlanta
and played at Georgia Tech, with their first-round
pick in the NFL Draft this year.

He was an All-American performer at Georgia Tech,
where he posted 19.5 quarterback sacks in his three
seasons at the school. He was the Atlantic Coast
Conference Defensive Player of the Year in 2009. Morgan has gotten off to a slow start with the
Titans, limited in practices because of injuries to a
hamstring and a calf.